Wisdom

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Definitions:
*The trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight
*The sum of learning through the ages

Discussion:
Use the discussion board to share your personal thoughts, experiences and understandings of this virtue as we progress through the week. Participation is optional, but encouraged. Click on the discussion tab to begin.


Quotables:
Collect quotes that relate to this virtue and share them here. Edit the page, and add the quote and author. Then, give a brief explanation of how that quote relates to the target virtue.

  • "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, 'He takes the wise in their own craftiness.'" 1 Corinthians 3:19
    • This quote shows the difference between man's wisdom and God's wisdom. His is far superior and should be sought after more than mortal wisdom.
  • " Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to aquire it." Albert Einstein
    • Einstein is saying that you can not get wisdom from school or years of schooling but it is something that you gradually recieve throughout time. Wisdom is something that comes to you natrually through a lifelong search for it.

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”

external image as5.gif Plato quotes (Ancient Greek Philosopher He was the world's most influential philosopher. 428 BC-348 BC)
This shows how wisdom and silence are important. People are not wise if they just speak to fill up space. The wise know that it is important to say the things that matter.

  • "To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them." Chinua Achebe
    • Achebe is saying that wisdom isant based on the quantity of knowledge an indivdual poessess but how much an individual enjoys what they know. For example one many be a wizard at Halo 3, that is thier wisdom or one may be an expert on the life and times of american history. Regardless of the topic the happiness aquired by the subject is what counts and creates wisdom
  • “One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.” -**Georg C. Lichtenberg**:
    • In order to learn sometimes you need to ask question. Wisdom is gain threw knowledge and teaching. To really get this wisdom you need to actually understand what is being is taught.
      • "Don't think you're on the right road, just because it's a well-beaten path."
        -- Unknown.
        • Being able to realize that sometimes the right thing to do isn't always the most popular is what gives a person wisdom.
The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.- Cicero
  • "[wisdom] it is the knowledge and use of what is most conducive to prosperity or happiness". -Bill Haymin
    • Haymin is stating that wisdom is what brings happiness. Through knowledge and wisdom prosperity can conquer and happiness is formed.



      More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
      Woody Allen (1935 - ), My Speech to the Graduates
      This quote expresses that wisdom will always be valuable. Also that it never leaves you, you only gain more.


  • "Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success you know." -William Saroyan
    • This quote dicusses learning from mistakes. I agree with Saroyan that learning from mistakes makes your more wise than learning from success. For example, I play volleyball and during my freshmen year, I learned how to spike a ball and do an approach. It took me several times to figure out an approach that worked for me. In order to figure out an approach that worked, I learned from my mistakes. If I was successful with my approach to begin with, I would not have gained as much knowledge on the form and technique.
  • “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.” –Theodore Roosevelt
    • This quote means that it is good to be a wise person but the knowledge must exist when it is useful. If something goes wrong and you learn about the mistake after the fact it is good for you but not good for the situation.
  • He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.
    • Wisdom comes with age and you need to be more tolerant as in learning from mistakes so if one never changes he will never learn and therefore will never be wise.

To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (James E)
  • This quote talks of how a person who in fact knows a lot, might lose sight of what is really important, therefore is not really wise. A person who knows a good deal of information might use this information to look deeper into things. This is where wisdom is found. (James E)

  • "Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit"-Baltasar Gracian
    • Here, Gracian is saying that acting wise is a difficult task. We learned this while studying non-conformity and understanding that to perform wise actions, you must sometimes go against the majority. Gracian, clearly understanding this fact, is saying that you must be able to stand up for yourself in order to obtain wisdom. (Jocelyn)
  • "Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something." - Plato
  • This is saying that people should only say something that is important. Only say something when you have thought about it and be conservative of what you say. Do not just speak to speak, or to hear your self talk. Fools speak just to speak, and have no meaning to what is coming out of their mouthes.
  • "Too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair." ~George Burns~
    • I think this quote is saying that all who are high ranked in society are not necessarily the wisest people. According to Burns, common people are just as wise as the rich and elite think they are. Wisdom is not bestowed on anyone. However, it is learned through experience. So all the bus drivers, taxi cab drivers, haircutters, etc. all are wise because they see the world as it is not for what it was or what it will become. They are not optimistic nor are they pessimistic. They are average, ordinary people who have much life experience and wisdom to share.
  • "Second thoughts are ever wiser"- Sophocles.
    • I believe this quote states that in life when we are absolutely sure that our instincts are right, we should to turn round just in case and rethink the situation. The process of utilizing the information a second time will no doubt serve to create more wisdom in our decisions in life.
  • "Wisdom begins at the end." -Daniel Webster
    • This quote is saying that wisdom is not learned early on in life but rather developed over time. It means that wisdom is not gained until later in life when you have lived long enough to obtain it.
  • "Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life." - Sandra Carey
    • This quote allows people to see how important wisdom really is. Of course knowledge can lead someone to great things- like degrees, a respectable status, and to lots of money. But none of those things matter if a person is unable to get through life. In order to get by, a person must have wisdom to gain common sense, insight, and experience. Knowledge can help establish "a living", but it can get pretty boring. People want to gain wisdom in order to live interesting and exciting lives while experiencing events that can not be learned.
  • "Trouble brings experience, and experience brings **wisdom**.”
    • THis quote brings to mind that not only does wisdom come in time, but to gain it you must work for it.


  • “Memory is the mother of all wisdom.”
- Samuel Johnson
This shows that a big part of wisdom is gaining and remembering information, in fact it is the most important part. To have wisdom you must have a broad knowledge of many subjects, and you must be able to remember it.


  • "The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
    • This quote shows that wisdom comes only with experience, which can only come with age. Young people may think they know how to deal with a situation, but they will only become wise once they gain experience.
  • "Learn wisdom from the ways of a seedling. A seedling which is never hardened off through stressful situations will never become a strong productive plant."-Stephen Sigmund
This quote means that if life is easy for some one then that person will never learn anything but wisdom is gained when some one goes through hard times because it causes people to rise above their situations and learn something.


  • Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification. - Martin Fischer

  • Fischer seems to be saying that wisdom is the result of doing something very simple, which is taking the everyday experience, the facts one gains by just living, and then applying them to the life which lies ahead. But this is only possible of you first condense the facts which pertain to individual situations and then make them apply to everything. So by living and at the same time processing everything you “learn” you should in essence gain wisdom.

  • "The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind." -Ella Wheeler Wilcox
  • This quote shows that wisdom must come from those who are happy because when one is happy, they are able to think logically and experience new things that enable them to gain a lot of knowledge. Happiness and kindness makes for a wise person because when one is nice to others, they are able to get to know more people to expand their brain and become wise.

o Hendrix makes the point that wisdom is knowing when to use knowledge rather than blabbering knowledge without direction.


  • A short saying often contains much wisdom. -Sophocles
    • This is a quote about wisdom because it talks about short sayings, or aphorisms that have wisdom in them. This saying is funny because the saying is very short but it too contains wisdom.

  • "The key to wisdom is this --
    constant and frequent questioning ...
    for by doubting we are led to question and
    by questioning we arrive at the truth."
-Peter Abelard
    • In order to gain wisdom everything that is done must be questioned. Once everything is questioned then true wisdom will be gained because the truth will be found.
  • By three methods we may learn wisdom:
    first, by reflection which is noblest;
    second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and
    third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
    -Confucius
  • i really really like this quote. just from a personal point of view, i think this quote truly shows wisdom. because you learn best from reflection, but some imitate because it is so easy to just copy other people, and experience of an event is bitter because normally what you experience is hurtful or painful. so i think this is a great quote